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On the subject of EP’s
doogerie
Posts: 765 Member
Has anyone noticed that Ep’s and game packs have gone down in quality since Cats and Dogs I mean look at Get to Work and Outdoor Retreat and Dine out they were brilliant but now the new content just seems poor let’s take get Famous as a good example of what I am getting at it had some fun ideas the star power thing and paparazzi but overall it was a bit lacking the world was small most of the clothes are not for everyday and most of the objects were well....not good now let’s look at Get To Work it was huge had lots of fun activates tons of nice cool new content but Get Famous and island Paradise just seem a bit flat almost boring in comparison.Dose anyone else feel the same?
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IL has issues for a lot of people, sure. Can't judge that one since I don't have it yet. Overall though, I definitely don't agree with the downhill thing. If anything, it's a matter of preference.
whoops well I know I feel that quality has dipped but that may just be me I got mixed up between release dates
This was the first pack where I noticed houses are off, as in no toilets. Now we had two game packs in a row with badly furnished houses. Bad floor plans, to little furniture, an unusable kitchen in strangerville,...
Worlds have also changed. Del Sol Valley has tiny neighbourhoods when it comes to lots per neighbourhood. Backdrops seem moreiimportant than playable area. And the world map teases a beach, but we don't get one. Strangerville has a world I like, but the normal version can only be unlocked by playing the storyline. And now Glimmerbrook, the perfect setting for remote locations in the woods, is dominated by driveways and a parking lot. Only Sulani seems to be a good world, but then again it is the main focus of a pack which is lacking in almost every other area.
Build buy seems OK, if it were not for missing island counters in Island living (now fixed), missing cabinets for kitchens in RoM, color options that don't match. (I still fail to see why this had to be fixed in today's emergency patch and not actual gameplay options like sellable potions.)
And the I haven't even touched the subject of younger sims being totally neglected in recent packs when it comes to gameplay. Only the Sulani sandcastles come to mind, but don't you dare think of a parent making a boat trip with their kids. Children only get a few leftovers if budget allows it, but they could do with some new gameplay. Or how about a fifth aspiration?
The packs aren't bad, but EA dropped the ball a few times to many to make them great. I have a feeling a bit more playtesting (off the grid felt like beta testing ) and polish the packs before they ship could make a big difference. That would at least be a start.
Family trees:
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Niner
I have loved the stars too truly to be fearful of the night.
Ha'aheo, e hoʻomau i kō kāua aloha, kau a kau.
It’s been downhill since Seasons for me. Get Famous and Island Living are garbage IMO and Strangerville is just okay. I wasn’t tremendously wowed by the novelty of its “story”. I can’t speak to RoM’s quality because I don’t own it.
soooo i guess i disagree
but i also feel that eps are not doing enough in ts4
and its probably partly due to introducing gps in the series
and then also trying to put gameplay objects in stuff packs as well
before we only had eps and stuff packs and everything was clear
eps introduced new gameplay, new mechanics and possible new worlds
concentrating on one bigger theme of gameplay (pets,university,seasons,magic,travel)
stuff packs introduced well, extra stuff for b/b and cas basically.
nothing much of a gameplay as far as i remember and mostly themed in some fashion style or interior style
now what they are doing is making packs out of smaller themes that used to just be one big ep before
and slightly trying to make it a bigger thing to do or relate the gameplay in things they didn't relate it to before
but the problem is its never quite big enough to justify 2 packs since people know it has fit in one pack before
and it just seems ridiculous when the themes are so similar to begin with
like for example before we would have one travel ep
now to play ts4 travel you need
spa day, outdoor retreat, island living, jungle adventure....
its just insane how many you need to achieve that one bigger theme
and its still not possible to play actual ''travel'' ep level either
and the other problem is eps becoming big part ''stuff packs'' or ''world packs''
on side of gps and sps that are starting to have similar amount of gameplay to ts4 ep
stuff packs having careers and gameplay items instead of just cool stuff,
game packs getting worlds and way more unique gameplay but cut short by pack size limitations...
eps weirdly favoring more stuff over more gameplay...
its just getting very problematic and annoying
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Some folks say careers from Get To Work have been bugged for YEARS, Dine Out constantly has bugs and you can’t run a restaurant successfully unless you’re on the lot, and I personally never send my Sims to Granite Falls because I feel the whole concept is boring.
I guess everything is and has been kinda “meh” lol
There was a definite rise in object quality around Kids Room stuff, where the artstyle went from toddler save dollhouse furniture to something more detailed that I cannot put a name on. The same for hairs. Bugs, there were some pretty jarring ones every now and then - remember the one where every sim who aged up up got the same small eyes and broad jawline, completely ruining generational play? I haven't seen something equally game-breaking afterwards, so it's definitely not getting worse. If anything, the quality is more inconsistent than in decline. The days when I went out getting a new sims EP without research are long past.
I think the quality of the build buy items and CAS has most definitely increased as the years have gone by. You can just look at the hair and clothing textures to see that. The game play .. it depends, some hits and misses all along... and that too is determined by preference.
Personally I like Get Famous, but I do wish they hadn't recycled the woohoo animations. Something that is becoming the norm with this game, increasingly so, is that they are starting to recycle a lot, either because they can't be bothered or because they are afraid the game might not handle many more of them, either way I'm not spending money buying the same things I already bought.
I actually think it's okay that houses are not perfect. I much prefer them to be more like a start point that I want to expand or upgrade as soon as my sims can afford it. Most EA made houses have way too big rooms for my taste, and I will normally turn a 1 bedroom house into a 3 bedrooms house with ease. I assume we simmers have different preferences, so as long as a house's exterior looks okay, I'm happy with the poor floor plans etc.
On topic - I don't expect each pack to be an exceptional stand alone game. I like it when it weaves into my existing packs as well as add something new. But with all these packs it's fine with me that the wow factor gets smaller the more packs I have.
My favorite packs are those giving me tools to organize my game better. Although some think Get Famous was not superb, I love the fame system and I use it for all kinds of things, pretty much like the club system can be used for making it easier to invite non-household family members over for a regular Sunday dinner.
The GPs have always been quite strong IMO (perhaps excluding Spa Day and RoM). I don't like fantasy play much, but even from my perspective I think Vampires was a better pack than RoM.
No way do I think Sims 4 is going down in quality, in fact, with the hint of Uni, I believe it is definitely going in a positive, upward direction.